An important part of scalability is testing. How do you know if it will scale if you don't test? But, sometimes you just want to do more of a quick performance test to see if anything is obviously wrong. I found a nice little tool called WBox1 recently that is pretty versatile.

It's a quick way to test a variety of things as follows. Summaries of all these items and command structure can be found on the tools web site.

Testing virtual domains - Interesting in that it allows you to fake a host file changeStressing servers and apps - A little stress testingDumping data - Checking headers to pinpoint issuesObtaining timing information per component - A breakdown of what's being downloaded per pageBasic usage - Similar to ping but for a web page Web Page Size - Quick Answer to how big is that page?

So, as another handy tool in the System Administrators tools box, WBox might have a rightful place for you.